The Lord's Supper as the Sign and Meal of the New Covenant

How God Communicates His Covenants through Communion

What is the meaning of the Lord’s Supper? Jesus instituted the Supper to strengthen the faith of his followers by reminding them of his promises. More than an ancient church tradition or a complex doctrinal controversy, it has practical importance in the lives of Christians today.

God has always made promises to his people through covenants, and along with them given signs and meals to point to and confirm his blessings. In The Lord’s Supper as the Sign and Meal of the New Covenant, professor Guy Prentiss Waters defines and explores the unity of the covenants in the Old and New Testaments.

• Biblical and Theological: Explores covenant meals, which point to God’s provision in Christ
• Comprehensive: Explains covenant signs, or the ways God appeals to believers through the 5 senses to reveal and reinforce his promises
• Accessible: Written for laypeople, students, and church leaders of all levels

In this short guide, readers recover the practical importance of communion for the family of God and reflect on the meaning of Christ’s words, “Do this in remembrance of me.”

• Explores 3 purposes of the Lord’s Supper: an expression of communion with Jesus Christ, a demonstration of unity with other Christians, and a demarcation between the church and the world
• Helps the contemporary church understand the significance of the Lord's Supper as a covenant sign and covenant meal
• Part of the Short Studies in Biblical Theology series, which offers readers accessible introductions to major topics in biblical theology

Guy Prentiss Waters (PhD, Duke University) is James M. Baird Jr. Professor of New Testament and academic dean at Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson. He is the author or editor of fifteen books and numerous chapters, articles, and reviews. He is a teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).

Dane C. Ortlund (PhD, Wheaton College) serves as senior pastor of Naperville Presbyterian Church in Naperville, Illinois. He is the author of Gentle and Lowly and Deeper. Dane and his wife, Stacey, have five children.

Miles V. Van Pelt (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the Alan Hayes Belcher, Jr. Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages and the director of the Summer Institute for Biblical Languages at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, where he has been serving for almost twenty-three years. He is passionate about teaching the biblical languages, biblical theology, and how the whole Bible, even the Old Testament, always points us to the person and work of Jesus Christ.